Retro Games rising in price. How much is too much?

[KrownKlown]

I still remeber a walmart near the UNC campus had like 25 sealed fire emblem gamecube games, I think path of raidance, I bought one for my collection but I should have bought all 25.

I know some older folks, who remember games like Suikoden 2 being available for close to nothing.

That being said, I would rather pay for an old game, than for the "retro" games which is what I thought the thread was about. I mean if you are going to complain about 150 bucks for chrono trigger on the snes, what about 200-300 for the classic version of pier solar or beggar prince etc.

[Gypsy]

In other news, water is wet.

I have my own beliefs that the new influx of collectors in the last 5 years or so has just exacerbated prices along with a couple other factors. 1Not much one can do except either sit out the market, save up to buy, or focus on trading instead.

2But it boggles my mind that you can in almost any case buy a moderately valuable game, sit on it at 6 months, then sell it for a profit. There is clearly a bubble of some sort happening, but how it deflates will be interesting to see.

Influx of collectors + shill listings/seller league of evil!!!!!11one

1. Or put in the work to get deals but I will admit that's more than some people are willing to do. I mean I woke up before 6am on Saturday, some people don't want to do that. Then there is building relationships with people in your area. Fellow collectors, people that for whatever reason sell a lot of video game stuff for cheap (as long as I'm not getting stolen vibes). For instance when I was more actively trawling CL I was in contact with a couple people that I bought stuff from pretty regularly. It got to the point where they knew I was reliable and had the money to buy so they would contact me first about stuff instead of making a listing. I'd do my best to try and buy everything within reason to keep the wheels greased there. Seemed to dry up for both, maybe the figured out Ebay idk. Also, it depends on how much competition for it is in your area. I pretty much know all the guys I am dealing with via networking on facebook and I've been collecting for a long time. I've known a couple of the current store owners since before they opened a store, which is also nice for me.

2. Yeah exactly. One has to wonder where it ends. I remember not grabbing some Mario Strikers copies for $7 each awhile back thinking that's what it's worth and I always see them. I see a posting on a facebook group which prompts me to check and apparently that sells for $25 routinely on Ebay now? Oh well, at least I'll keep that in mind for future sightings. And of course it's worse with more valuable games, I mentioned how I hated paying what I did for SFCD and Popful Mail but at various points in the last year they have been worth double what I paid. That's nuts.

@Klown: I'd say this thread is more of an active discussion about it than a mopey bitch fest of wah I can't get games for 50 cents a piece with minimal effort that much anymore. I think we've both seen enough of those threads to know. And I'd agree people paying that much for what amounts to an unofficial game is pretty silly. I don't even have interest in them tbqh. Even at the price they were being sold for initially.

[JWiley_12]

2. Yeah exactly. One has to wonder where it ends. I remember not grabbing some Mario Strikers copies for $7 each awhile back thinking that's what it's worth and I always see them. I see a posting on a facebook group which prompts me to check and apparently that sells for $25 routinely on Ebay now? Oh well, at least I'll keep that in mind for future sightings. And of course it's worse with more valuable games, I mentioned how I hated paying what I did for SFCD and Popful Mail but at various points in the last year they have been worth double what I paid. That's nuts.

I don't see it ending any time soon. Antiques don't get any cheaper either, and at this point many retro games and systems are 25+ yo. I know, they're consumer electronics, but still some of that stuff is pretty timeless imo.

[daylightdies]

Too much is a relative term, different for each person. I wouldn't pay anything for a game before the PS2 gen. I'm not much of a collector though. In general terms, I equate monetary value I'd prefer to pay to play time. I figure $1 per hour of play time is a good rate for me. So if I spend $10 on a game and get ten hours of play out of it, I am satisfied.

The only real "rare" game I have on my wantlist is Skies of Arcadia Legends. While not super rare, I'll be paying around full retail for a used game when and if I finally pick it up. I had my eye on both Xenosaga III and Dragon Quest V before they got reprinted. I ended up paying a bit more than normal for both, but both were well worth it.

[Gypsy]

Sure they do, and I have plenty of knowledge about antiques. But antiques are a much more finicky market. Something can be scorching hot and then just be almost completely dead. That really doesn't happen with video games. Also even with Ebay antiques can be very regional. Either because of ties to a particular area or due to difficulty/cost to ship. Values tend to be much more roughly defined (and are more volatile as mentioned before) than something like video games or magic cards as well.

Edit: Also, I've seen plenty of bubbles burst. It may just be one system at some point but it may happen. It was a pretty hard burst for Atari, GI Joes etc...

[JWiley_12]

Sure they do, and I have plenty of knowledge about antiques. But antiques are a much more finicky market. Something can be scorching hot and then just be almost completely dead. That really doesn't happen with video games. Also even with Ebay antiques can be very regional. Either because of ties to a particular area or due to difficulty/cost to ship. Values tend to be much more roughly defined (and are more volatile as mentioned before) than something like video games or magic cards as well.

Edit: Also, I've seen plenty of bubbles burst. It may just be one system at some point but it may happen. It was a pretty hard burst for Atari, GI Joes etc...

Could you maybe give an example of something antique that got cheaper once it reached a certain price though. Gotta admit I don't know a whole lot about it, and I'd like to better understand how something that is old, has been on the market for 25+ years, with a limited market presence by default, and in good (working) condition, can devaluate at a certain point in time.

[Gypsy]

It just boils down to what people are willing to pay, and sometimes initially something can be hot and then people go OH **** I have that and the market gets flooded. Treadle sewing machines are a good example.

Edit: You could say antiques are very much moreso a "right buyer" type of thing.

[JWiley_12]

It just boils down to what people are willing to pay, and sometimes initially something can be hot and then people go OH **** I have that and the market gets flooded. Treadle sewing machines are a good example.

Edit: You could say antiques are very much moreso a "right buyer" type of thing.

But what I still don't understand is how the market ever gets "flooded" with antiques? There's only so much of them available still after so many years, right?

I understand the "right buyer" thing, and at the moment there are a lot of right buyers for retro games, making the market a bit overheated.

But how do you see retro games getting dirt cheap again, even when the market cools down? It's still old and collectible stuff, and the numbers are still fairly limited.

The examples you mentioned above (G.I. Joe, Atari, ...) dropped incredibly in price right after their bubble burst. But once they get a certain age, I don't see them dropping in price anymore tbqh.

[Gypsy]

Well I did say it may happen with one system where the prices go back down. I mean I'm not predicting a total market crash, that's not happening. I'm also not saying Ebay is going to turn into a cheap garage sale or flea market. I suppose my main issue is with the ultra common games that bumped well up in price and why people accept that. I mean it's funny that I bring it up with the lot I got recently being a great example in terms of the N64 games. Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64, Goldeneye etc... I get that they are popular, but there are thousands of copies on Ebay at a time. They are not in short supply. There is no reason to pay more than $5 for any of them yet people do. The SNES has worse examples like A Link to the Past. Some games have always been high but there is no reason to accept paying $20+ for a supremely common game. My hope would be that sanity would return on titles like those.

It should also be noted that even more common antiquities are generally much rarer than even a pretty rare video game like say MKR or .hack quarantine which are both around 10k copies.

[Lord of Pirates]

It's a dark day when people view video games as antiques @__@.